Simbu's Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven, Karthi's Dev turn out to be duds in 1st quarter of 2019

Actor Simbu and Karthi have not started the year on a positive note as their movies failed to strike the chord with the viewers. The former's Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven and the latter's Dev were eagerly awaited by fans following good hype, but in the end, it could not keep the cash registers ringing.

Since Simbu was returning after Mani Ratnam's Chekka Chivantha Vaanam, people had high expectations on Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven. The film was supposed to be released in January but got delayed due to Rajinikanth's Petta and Ajith Kumar's Viswasam. The movie was marketed well and opened to mixed reviews.

However, Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven did not pull the audience to theatres in big numbers. The content was not bad, yet the cine-goers did not show interest to watch it in theatres. The general opinion among the trade trackers was that the viewers were not keen to watch films in theatres after masala entertainers like Petta and Viswasam.

It was not the case with Dev as the movie was criticised for his poorly-written story. After delivering a few hits in recent years, Karthi came up with below-average content.

Not just Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven and Dev, Oviyaa's 90 Ml, which once again had Simbu in a special role, and Nayanthara's Airaa had garnered decent buzz. But both the films have failed to live up to the viewers' expectations.

However, Simbu and Karthi can still bounce back this year with their movies like Maanadu and Kaithi, while Nayan has quite a few releases this year that include Kolaiyuthir Kaalam, Mr Local, Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy and Vijay's Thalapathy 63.